A Haven for the Mind
by TrippWire
Summary: Shortly after Terra redeems herself and saves Jump City, Beast Boy starts making unannounced retreats to a certain spot on the shore of the Titans' island. When a few months pass, Raven finally decides to go down there, seeking answers from him. [ONESHOT]


**Disclaimer:**** Come on, if I owned the Teen Titans, would I really be sitting here writing fan fiction?**

**Rating:**** K**

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_/edited: 24 November 2009_

**A Haven for the Mind**

"Beast Boy?" she asked once she was positive he was aware of her presence.

"Yeah?" he responded tepidly.

"I've seen you here a lot recently. Why do you come down here?"

Beast Boy didn't really seem all that interested in conversation. "To think," he said ambiguously.

"Because you have so much trouble doing that everywhere else?" she badgered in her expressionless voice.

"Raven, I'm _not_ in the mood," he grumbled at her.

"Well, be sure to tell me when you are."

Beast Boy looked back and shot a glare at the cloaked girl standing on the small portion of sandy beach behind him.

"Okay, sorry," she apologized when she saw the way his eyes focused on her.

Raven carefully padded onto the grey shale rock where Beast Boy sat. There she sat down next to him, slipped off her blue boots, and set them aside. The dark rock was coarse and cold on the bottom of her delicate feet. She swung her legs over the side and let her toes dip into the cool seawater that splashed the rocks with its calm waves. The salty, oceanic scent of the water, brought in by a sudden sea breeze, surrounded Raven and playfully tickled her nose. In the crisp night sky, the full moon shined brightly, giving the light it borrowed from the sun to the sea. The water was illuminated with a soft, white luminescence. Numerous glows of yellows, blues, and whites pierced through the darkness from the thousands of windows in the city not too far away. Coming to the water's edge was something Raven did not commonly do, and the difference in the atmosphere here from inside the tower always pleasantly surprised her.

Raven had seen Beast Boy out on this very rock a few times. Those few times were enough to pique her curiosity, so she journeyed down to the boy's spot of refuge in search of an explanation.

"What makes this spot so special to you?" she finally inquired after a moment's stillness.

Looking out into the open water, Beast Boy sighed. "I'm not sure," he said. "Maybe because of what happened here. Since then, whenever I've had something on my mind, I've retraced my steps back to here."

Having no recollection of what happened on this old, grey rock, she decided to ask. "What happened here, may I ask?"

His gaze broke off from the sea as he tilted his head down and sighed once more. "This is where I saw Terra the last time before she ran off… before she turned to _him_… and betrayed us."

"Oh," Raven said softly. She never wanted to broach anything involving Terra with Beast Boy, but unfortunately, she stumbled upon it anyway. No more than half a year had passed since the ordeal with the earth shifter, so it was understandable that this place made an impression in Beast Boy's mind. If this was something that was perturbing him, she wasn't going to investigate. She hated when it was done to her, so why be a hypocrite?

"I think the places we find most easy to think at are the ones that hold the most significance to us," she submitted.

"I guess," Beast Boy muttered unhelpfully.

The current of the water flowed effortlessly between Raven's toes, creating miniature eddies that swirled right into the smooth vertical face of the rock. She enjoyed the refreshing coolness encompassing her feet.

"You said you come here when you have things on your mind," Raven recalled, "so I can guess that means _anything_. What do you think about?"

"It's not important," he stated divertingly.

Raven closed her eyes, a pensive expression on her face. "To someone else, that probably would have been the most unhelpful answer you could give," she remarked.

Beast Boy looked at her, intrigued by her response.

She then looked right back at him to meet his eyes. "But I know what you mean… Because I would have said the same thing," she related. "You come here to think about past mistakes, memories, things you lost, anything that will cling to your mind for a long time."

"I don't suppose that was a lucky guess?" he asked, attempting to be his usual self, but not managing to shake the downcast tone from his voice.

Raven shook her head "no" as she unconsciously swung her legs in lazy circles, churning the streaming water.

"You're right," Beast Boy admitted. "I guess that's what you do when you go hide in your room?"

"No, well, not all the time. I actually find myself going to the roof of the tower when I need time to think."

"Why do you go there?"

"It's relaxing... _quiet_. No one around to bother me. It's the same reason why you come here," she explicated.

Beats Boy stared out into the distance and absorbed his surroundings as he took fresh air into his lungs.

"Yeah," he confirmed her assertion. "Even though this place doesn't hold the best memories, I love it here; the view of the ocean out past the mouth of the bay, the texture of this rock, the sound of the waves crashing against the shore, the seclusion of it all."

Raven noted how in tune Beast Boy was to his surroundings when he had the chance to be.

"Sometimes certain memories just sort of resurface," he continued, "and I have to find a way to escape and think. I could go anywhere I want. Become a falcon and fly into the mountains. Turn into a wolf and run through the woods. But no matter what's on my mind, I like being close to home."

For the first time since Raven found him on the rock, Beast Boy smiled. It was faint and lacked his usual spark of enthusiasm, but it was enough to get Raven to smile back.

"If I left here, I wouldn't have anyone to talk to about this stuff," he added warm-heartedly.

This pleased Raven and it made her think about her relationship with Beast Boy. "I know we have our differences and we argue a bit," she said softy, "but we really do have some things in common. This has really shown that, to me at least."

He nodded in agreement. She was right, as always. In spite of everything that practically denoted them as polar opposites, at their cores, they could find connections.

"Hey, Raven?"

"Yes?" she responded, lifting her soaking feet from the cold water.

"Thanks for the company. Just talking about things is enough to ease my mind."

He was now smiling fully and it made Raven content to hear him be so gracious and kind to her. Knowing fully well what it was like to have a troubled mind, she respected his decision to keep what was bothering him to himself. Moments like this occurred between them as frequently as a blue moon, and she hoped they would become more frequent than that.

She ran her hands over her moist feet, attempting to rid them of any water or salt that insisted on clinging to them. Grabbing a hold of her boots, she pointed her toes and slid first her left foot and then her right back into their warm shelters.

"You're welcome," she said kindly in return.

"Promise to be around if I need your help again?" Beast Boy asked hopefully.

She looked like she was having difficulty on deciding her answer, but then she gave him a smile that said she wouldn't think about it twice to offer her help.

"We'll see how things go," she said in what only _sounded_ like her usual serious articulation.

He smiled again. "Thanks."

Another breeze picked up and ruffled Raven's cloak. Her violet hair cascaded in front of her face as the sudden wind slowly dissipated.

"It's getting a little chilly. I'm going to go inside," she told him, standing up.

"Okay, I'll be in soon. I just need a second," he said and reclined onto his back, laying his hands on his stomach.

Not another word was heard from Raven. She stealthily walked away in her normal fashion to leave Beast Boy to his ruminations.

Beast Boy gazed upon the starry sky, thinking about how each one looked like little holes in a dark blanket, revealing the light of the heavens beyond them. The wind had started to pick up and it rushed past his pointed ears. He could hear nothing but the waves and the air that flowed along his body and weaved through his fine, green hair. The rock beneath him was cold on his back. Eroded by the water, it had no sharp or jagged edges that would make it uncomfortable to lie on. He removed the gloves from his hands to feel the fine-grained surface of the shale. Grazing his fingers along it, Beast Boy found his haven; the one place he could always reach solace.

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**A/N'S:**

This came to me at like three or four in the morning (late night and/or early morning are my creative hours) after some inspiration of another story that takes place in the same spot: _Plain Vanilla_. Thanks ntmnky!

And the whole thing about Raven dipping her feet into the water, it was a little detail I thought would somehow subtly enhance her character and the story. Like a lighthearted note in the midst of a serious topic.


End file.
